How to Decorate Your Home on a Budget

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As you all know, I am forever ballin’ on a budget. I have student loan debt and credit card debt and a car payment and bills to pay. I don’t have the luxury of buying a $3,000 Celine bag on a whim or hiring an interior decorator to decorate my whole house for me. Hopefully someday! But for now, I have to be strategic with my purchases so I can pay off all of my debt. And since I just moved into a new house (from a tiny apartment, mind you) I have to get really strategic with how I can afford everything to furnish and decorate the house! So I’ve come up with my guide on how to decorate your home on a budget!

White + gold wall art came from Hobby Lobby for $5, lamps came from T.J. Maxx, buffet table was free from my parents’ house, barstools came from Target, and the gold dish came from T.J. Maxx also!! All super cheap (or free)

1. The main tip that I have learned when it comes to decorating the house without breaking the bank is… patience. Decorating a three bed, two bath, kitchen, breakfast nook, dining room, living room, two hallways, entry way, front porch, back porch, laundry room home is a marathon, not a sprint! I moved into this house after having a small, one bedroom apartment so I didn’t have a dining room table, kitchen table, guest bed, guest night stands, two dressers, office furniture, etc. I had a couch, coffee table, dresser, and two bar stools!! And only enough decor for a tiny apartment. That’s it. Trying to buy all of the furniture I need AND all of the decor for the entire house all at once would have cost several thousand dollars!

So patience, my friends, patience.

Start collecting things as you go. Oh, you’re at Target? Check out the decor isles and grab one or two things, that you can afford!!! Are you out shopping with your mom and you see a cute lamp that would look good in your office? Grab it, but that’s it. Over time, your small collections will add up to decorate the whole house. You don’t have to spend $200 at a time. Just buy one or two pieces every so often and it will all add up, trust me.

I found these real marble lamps in my brother-in-law’s garage and he gave them to us for free!! I also found that candle at Home Goods for $4!

2. Another tip on how to decorate your home on a budget is to use holidays and birthdays to your home’s advantage. Every birthday and Christmas when my family asks what I want, I ALWAYS say gift cards! And not just any gift cards, but gift cards to places where a little money will go a long way. Home Goods, T.J. Maxx, Wayfair, Hobby Lobby, At Home, Target, etc. I can go in with a $25 gift card and come out with three to five small items or one larger item!

Both of these cutting boards came from Christmas presents! Everything else pictured came from T.J. Maxx or Home Goods for under $10!

3. My third tip on how to decorate your home on a budget, is to budget your purchases by month or by paycheck and to prioritize what’s on your list. Obviously if your house is empty and you’re sitting on a lawn chair in the living room, a couch is more important than an office desk or a dresser for the guest bedroom. The couch should be your top priority and that’s what you should budget for first. I only buy furniture once a month because that’s what I can afford. I can’t afford to buy an entire bedroom set off of one paycheck. For instance, the IKEA Hemnes Chests that I’m using as night stands in our master bedroom, are $179 each. Obviously I need two of them, but I can’t afford to buy two at a time. So I bought one in January and then I bought the second one in February. And because of that, I didn’t have to live off of ramen noodles!

Orchid came from Home Goods and the picture frames came from T.J. Maxx, all under $10. And the white box is actually a Chanel box that my perfume came in and I reused the box!

This month, I bought an area rug for the master bedroom and next month, I’ll be buying dining room chairs.Probably not all 6 of them at once, but maybe just two at a time! Then the month after that I’ll buy kitchen table chairs, and so on until the house is furnished. It may take 12 months but like I said, it’s a marathon not a sprint! 😉

This gold + mirrored little table came from Ross and was only $12!

4. The fourth tip I have is to shop strategically and at more affordable places. Buying used furniture from Offer Up, Craigslist, consignment furniture stores, Good Will, Salvation Army, and ReStore (Habitat for Humanity) will save you hundreds of dollars. We have a ReStore and The Hope Chest over by our house and we have been keeping an eye on their inventory for a TV stand. We need a very large TV stand/buffet table/dresser that will fit in this TIV nook that we have and buying a brand new one will be about $1,000…. No thanks! So we’re keeping an eye out for used furniture that we can use in that space instead!

Everything in this photo came from T.J. Maxx (besides the coffee table and ottoman which came from Wayfair). Very inexpensive! I get all of my coffee table books from ABEbooks.com, Half Price Books, or Amazon for wayyy cheap and the candle was a birthday gift!

Also, the best places to find inexpensive home decor is Amazon, Home Goods, T.J. Maxx, Hobby Lobby, Ross, Marshall’s, Wayfair, and even sometimes Target, although some Target stuff can get a little pricey. Check out this blog post on my most recent Home Goods Haul! Here are some home decor items from Amazon that I have on my wish list that are super cheap but still great quality:

Decorating your house to match your style shouldn’t cost a fortune. And just because you can’t afford an interior decorator or spend $7,000 on just decorating the living room (that’s still absurd if even can afford that), doesn’t mean that you have to settle for crappy, cheap-looking decor and furniture. Inexpensive designer-looking decor is out there, you just have to keep your eye out and follow my tips on how to decorate your home on a budget!

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I am partnered with a few affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and ShopStyle Collective. This does not affect the price of any products that I link, but I may get a commission off of certain linked products!